Sunday, January 4, 2015

Blackcurrants and JAM!


This year's blackcurrant crop is twice last years, so more jam! When I was a child, my mum always used to complain that the blackcurrants were always ready on Boxing Day, but now I'm picking them after New Year's Day. Our summer here has been on and off, so perhaps this is the reason why. There seems to have been a city-wide failure of cucumber plants owing to a sudden cold night about 2 weeks ago. They've all got some kind of mould.


Anyway, blackcurrants have been fine. I've made some of this year's crop into jam and have frozen the rest for use in cakes and desserts in the winter. Plenty of jam for wintertime scones with afternoon tea. Yum!



Thursday, January 1, 2015

Order versus chaos





This, believe it or not, is my vegetable garden. Every year I lose control of it about now. Things have gone to seed and self-seeded poppies, lychnis, aquilegia and borage come up all over the place. As a vegetable plot it's a bit of a disaster, but I quite like the chaos. The seed heads of poppies, leeks and florence fennel are all attractive and dramatic. It's all in the way of seeing; is it chaos, or a kind of order of its own?


This is my zucchini plant among the poppies. At the supermarket yesterday they were selling zucchini for $4 a kilo. And this is a 'zucchini factory', growing at home. 


Further on the subject of chaos, no two cherries are alike. I painted these before Christmas; each one has its own personality, I think. (Without anthropomorphising too much).




Here's the fabulous cat, very much in his prime now, nothing left of the cute little kitten I had. I nearly had two more kittens at new Year; two kittens showed up at a friend's house and I said I would take them if they proved to be homeless, but the owner was found, fortunately for them and me. Had to take Thomas to the vet because he had a sore throat that didn't seem to be getting better. The vet thinks it's because he eats too many birds and has got his throat scratched as he scarfed one down. Hasn't stopped him eating though. What I like about going to the vets is seeing how many people really care about their animals; you read of terrible cruelties inflicted by humans, but those people are in the minority, thank Goddess. One little dog being reunited with his owner went mad with delight, then leaped up and clung to his 'dad' just like a toddler would. Nice.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

A new year

Tonight's the night dreaded by introverts. Time to batten down the hatches and make sure I have earplugs at the ready. I can hear "Them" over the back fence warming up already. I still think the new year thing is weird and arbitrary; isn't every day the start of a new year? Having lived through 56 of them now, the only one that really stands out in my memory is one when I was lived in an old house in a seaside suburb, and got up at dawn to wander the beach and welcome in the new day. Blissfully quiet, the light flooding in across the sea, just me, the seagulls and a sleeping drunk bedded down in the sand. Perhaps I'll do this again tomorrow?
     Hope you all have a fruitful new year full of good things.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

At last - a summer day


Nice hot day today, no wind either, so great to sit outside for dinner. This is a rare event in Christchurch, NZ; often we have a freezing cold wind in the evening.


Raspberries have been quite successful this year. Collected this handful this morning from the garden


Lillium regale - in New Zealand we call this the Christmas Lily. Fabulous fragrance, when in a vase these are overpowering at night in a small room, so I move mine into the conservatory.



I went away to get a cup of coffee and someone pinched my chair....


Thursday, December 25, 2014

Poppies in the garden


Seed from this poppy can be used in baked goods


The seed-heads are very attractive too



This poppy is like a big marshmallow or a wedding dress. The other plants of this type of poppy are all red poppies; this is the only white one.

Tootsie (1982) My Christmas tradition - rewatching Tootsie

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Damn it!

We've just this minute had another big earthquake! It seems like every public holiday when we all start to relax, it happens again. Hate it.